Pressure is mounting on the government to reform legislation on surrogacy, for which demand has almost doubled in a decade. In the year to March, 758 UK applications were made for parental orders for babies born to surrogates – up from 399 in 2016, according to data obtained by WSP Solicitors, which advises on surrogacy.

The increase has largely been driven by gay couples wanting to become parents, as well as “increasing infertility” and “shifting cultural attitudes”, said The Guardian. The majority of these babies were born overseas, mostly in the US, Nigeria and Georgia, where surrogates can be paid.

What is the current law?
Commercial surrogacy is banned in the UK, but women can receive “reasonable expenses” for “altruistic surrogacy”. The woman remains the legal mother of the baby, and if she’s married or in a civil partnership, her spouse is recorded as the legal second parent, even if they have no biological connection to the child – unless they refuse permission.

Intended parents must apply to a court for a parental order after the baby’s birth in order to become the legal parents, even if they already are biologically. Critics say this system can be distressing for intended parents, and off-putting to prospective surrogates.

What reforms are proposed?
In 2023, the Law Commission proposed recognising intended parents as legal parents from birth, rather than waiting for a parental order. Experts also argue that a better-regulated system could prevent so many people seeking surrogacy arrangements abroad.

The recommendations were accepted into a draft bill and, in September, MPs debated a campaigners’ petition that called for the changes. But the government has said it is not a legislative priority.

What are the arguments against reform?
Critics say the proposed reforms could weaken the current system, which allows a surrogate to change her mind about giving up the baby. This is “essential, especially given how many British surrogate mothers use their own eggs”, said Helen Gibson of Surrogacy Concern in The Critic. There is also a fear that a less burdensome administrative process could incentivise lower-income women abroad to carry babies for couples in the UK.

When a powerful man is found guilty of “crimes against women”, said Marisa Bate in The i Paper, a “frustrating and uncomfortable question” emerges: “who else knew?” In the case of Russell Brand, the answer appears to be “if not everyone, then a hell of a lot of people”. There has been much focus on TV executives who put “ratings above women’s safety” and turned a blind eye to the comedian’s behaviour. “But what about his famous mates?”

‘Spineless attempt at self-protection’
Brand is “rightfully a pariah” following his conviction for rape and sexual assault, said Jawad Iqbal in The Spectator. But his “army of enablers” must not be allowed any “hiding place”. He wouldn’t have achieved fame without a “helping hand from some of the most influential and powerful” public figures, who are now “airbrushing” their history of “gushing over Brand”. It’s a “roll call of shame”.

Jonathan Ross laughed at Brand and Noel Fielding “making jokes about rapists and Jack the Ripper”, said Bates in The i Paper, and teamed up with Brand to leave obscene voicemails for actor Andrew Sachs. Ross this week said he was “genuinely unaware” of Brand’s conduct and is “horrified”. This “distancing” from Brand, now that there’s “nothing to gain by association, but potentially something to lose”, reeks of “a spineless attempt at self-protection”.

‘Performing monkey’
“Nobody in Labour circles appeared too bothered” by Brand’s behaviour either, said Iqbal in The Spectator. Ed Miliband “went out of his way to ingratiate himself” with Brand during the 2015 general election campaign, and The Guardian columnist Owen Jones wrote an article claiming Brand was the politician’s best route to young voters.
Jones now says he overlooked Brand’s “problematic behaviour”, seeing him as a “crude means” to reach disillusioned younger left-wing people. This was an “obvious misjudgement”, Jones said on X.

Brand was “egged on” by some of media’s most powerful figures, said Liz Kershaw in The Telegraph. “He was their performing monkey.” Perhaps the “enablers” who overlooked or encouraged his vile behaviour should also have been brought to the dock.

“Why did no one stop him?” said Lucy Morgan in Esquire. We must challenge each enabler, “and perhaps even ourselves, sitting in the audience, laughing along the entire time”.

Members of the Maasai community dress in traditional attire for a four-day celebration of their heritage in Sekenani, Kenya. Thousands of Maa-speaking people are gathering in the Maasai Mara National Reserve for the fourth Maa Cultural Festival.

Luis Tato / AFP / Getty Images

Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes: Château de la Rivière, Chareil-Cintrat
This fairy-tale château, set in approx. 3 acres, is currently one of the region’s best-known wedding venues. 5 beds, 3 baths, kitchen/dining room, 2 receps, 5-bed self-contained gîte, tennis court, swimming pool, outbuildings, parking, sold fully furnished and equipped. €1.28 million; Prestige Property.

Nouvelle-Aquitaine: Hagetmau, Gascony
A charming 17th century château in a tranquil rural setting of approx. 8 acres. 7 beds, 5 baths, kitchen/breakfast room, 3 receps, 2-bed self-contained gîte, swimming pool, garden, parking. €895,000; Prestige Property.

Centre-Val de Loire: Pouligny-Saint-Pierre, Le Blanc
A handsome château, set in approx. 3 acres, overlooking the Creuse river. 7 beds, 2 baths, kitchen/breakfast room, 2 receps, garden, outbuildings, parking. €526,600; Prestige Property.

Nouvelle-Aquitaine: Château de Puymoger, Brantôme
An enchanting 17th century château with fine corbelled corner turrets. 9 beds, 9 baths, kitchen/breakfast room, 3 receps, swimming pool, outbuildings, garden, parking. €1.8 million; Prestige Property.

Occitanie: Olmet-et-Villecun, Lodève
Fine 17th century château with views of Haut-Languedoc Nature Park. 10 beds, 8 baths, kitchen, 2 receps, guest house, swimming pool, garden, parking. €1.5 million; Leggett/Hamptons.

Progressives are still so pessimistic, but why? The populist right can and will be defeated
Andy Beckett in The Guardian
The US midterms “are the latest evidence” that the “supposedly ascendant global right has been out-organised” and “out-thought”, writes Andy Beckett. But “liberals and leftists” still harbour a “creeping conviction that the right’s supremacy will inevitably return”. “Left-leaning governments” remain over-cautious, “as if they are impostors” soon to be replaced by “society’s natural” rulers. The populist right’s “performance of certainty can be seductive”, but it’s “well past time” to stop the deference and call out the bluff.

Get ready for the genetically modified hounds of hell
Mary Wakefield in The Spectator
Fans of old sci-fi comics will be familiar with the concept of “warrior hell-hounds”, writes Mary Wakefield. “The trouble is it’s not fiction” anymore: the “first batch of pups” from the Pentagon’s Warhound project “is due next year”. Imagine a battlefield of “muscled and armoured dogs and wolves” with genetically modified senses, working with drones to hunt humans. Talk about “World War 3: Megafauna Strikes Back”. Once,“that would have been a joke”; now, “it’s a prediction”.

The election of a black senator in Mississippi is a seismic event
The Times’ editorial board
Mississippi “could once have laid claim to being the most racist state in the Union”, says the Times. In the century following the American Civil War, around 600 lynchings occurred there, “with not a single killer prosecuted”. People still remember education and transport being “ruthlessly segregated by skin colour”. But the election of Black Democrat Scott Colom as Mississippi’s next senator “shows that a place, a people and an apparently entrenched political settlement can always change for the better”.